The former Bruin scored a pretty breakaway goal that wound up as the game-winner to a 4-2 victory that gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a series split with the Bruins.

The goal was Kessel's first at even strength in his entire 24-game body of work against his former team.

It was symbolic of the night but only a finishing touch to a team-wide effort that made the Leafs look like the contenders and the Bruins like the pretenders in these Stanley Cup playoffs.

"We got the first goal so we got a lead, and that's what we wanted, to have a lead in Game 2 in our building. That's what we want, but for some reason we just couldn't build on that. We couldn't get a second one and maybe that cost us the game," said Bruins center David Krejci, who expected Toronto to come out hitting. "We all know what happened in Game 1 so we expected them to come out hard, hit everything that moved. So we were ready for it. ... We got a lead but from there we went downhill."

The best-of-seven continues on Monday night in Toronto and, if the Bruins are going to regain momentum they're going to have to be better in all facets except faceoffs, where they enjoyed a 31-17 edge through two periods.

Other than that, the Maple Leafs played like a team unsatisfied to just be back in the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

The Leafs held a 22-10 edge in bodychecks for the first period (44-35 for the game) — and, despite falling behind 1:56 into the second period on Nathan Horton's goal, stuck to their game plan.

They got to the puck first, they hit first, they thought first and acted first.

The Maple Leafs played more good hockey in the opening six minutes of Game 2 than they did in all of Game 1, and the lingering question was whether goaltender James Reimer was capable of making big saves when the team wasn't good in front of him.

At 6:36, Bruins center Gregory Campbell got the puck off a Toronto turnover and fired from the slot, but Reimer stopped it.

It was the first big save in a game full of them.

Reimer and Tuukka Rask made at least three point-blank goal-stealers in the opening frame alone, but the biggest difference in the period was Toronto's physicality.

The injury scares were for the Bruins in this one, as both Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand left the game temporarily after separate incidents, and Tyler Seguin went in hard against the boards after missing a hit late in the game.

Bergeron collided with Nikolai Kulemin in the left circle with 5:15 remaining in the first period, and Marchand took a Zdeno Chara slapshot off his left leg.

Johnny Boychuk's second goal of the series with 9:25 remaining led to some electric moments thereafter, but James van Riemsdyk answered for Toronto with 3:07 left and that was that.

"As a five-man unit, we didn't do good enough angling them off making room tighter for them," said defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who had the roughest night on paper, finishing minus-3. "They're an effective skill team and they use it to their advantage."

Beyond sweatsoaked hockey gear, there will be dirty laundry.

Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf got away with an elbow to Daniel Paille in front of the penalty box — the NHL may review it — but a suspension is not likely for a key player in an incident that did not result in injury.

If there were any lasting positives for Boston, they belonged to Rask, whose 28 saves were more impressive than the 39 James Reimer had to make for the win, and Dougie Hamilton, the 19-year-old rookie who handled his first NHL playoff game with the same poise he showed for the 42 games he played in the regular season.

"First period I was a little bit nervous — I hadn't played a game in a while — but felt better after that," Hamilton said. "Just unfortunate we didn't get the win."

At the end of the night, a late surge of emotion wasn't enough for a team whose 2011 playoff slogan was "60+ (minutes) to history." The fans who stuck around were entertained by a scrap between Shawn Thornton and Mark Fraser with a half-second showing on the game clock.

Now they're guaranteed at least a Game 5 on Friday — and by the way these teams played the first two, the full seven could be in their future.

Mick Colageo covers hockey for The Standard-Times. Contact him at mcolageo@s-t.com and visit Rink Rap at blogs.southcoasttoday.com/bruins